This is part of a series (a long-running series at this point).
- The “whole Man of Steel business” is here - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=116951
- If you want the full set of links, click on my profile.

-----------------------

Skylanders: SWAP Force (2013) - ***
Lorne Balfe; add’l music by Max Aruj, Andrew Christie & Gary Dworetsky; digital instrument design Mark Wherry;
electronic programmer Stephen Hilton; technical assistants Joe Cho & Nathan Stornetta

TBTF discovery #6. At 45 minutes, this was the longest Skylanders album to date. Thankfully, it had the most satisfying sonic palette of the series, with a lot of fun new elements - atmospheric vocals, bubbly electronics, Eastern instruments, harmonica and whips for a Western passage, and so on. Even the fat synths made for a nice dose of style. Best Skylanders yet.


Beyond: Two Souls (2013) - ***½
Lorne Balfe; produced by Hans Zimmer; add’l music by Max Aruj, Andrew Christie, Gary Dworetsky & Dieter Hartmann;
orchestrated & conducted by Matt Dunkley; add’l orchestration by Tony Blondal, Dave Foster & Jake Parker;
digital instrument Design Mark Wherry; score coordinator Kelly Johnson; technical assistant Joe Cho

TBTF discovery #7.

Zimmer: “This was more interesting than other [games] we had done. We are always looking for that next immersive thing.”

This interactive game about a girl’s psychic link won attention for its cast (Elliot Page and Willem Dafoe!) and praise for its graphics but got more of a mixed reception for its gameplay and storyline. Director David Cage reached out to Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe in early 2012 about doing the game music, though per Balfe “the last thing he wanted was ‘game music!’ Getting a theme for Jodie was hard.” Balfe would in some ways deliver a typical work for the brand, with plenty of churning low strings and several progressions prompting memories of earlier Media Ventures moments of tortured drama (though, with Remote Contorl’s history of strip mining its action music legacy for video game purposes, perhaps it was nice to have one of their game scores be slightly derivative of something else for a change). But, as he had demonstrated in recent scores like Ironclad and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Balfe could add some intriguing wrinkles to somewhat transcend that familiarity: haunting solo vocals, a lullaby, and a stylish sense of aching mystery that arguably drifts into Craig Amstrong territory at times.


Planes (2013) - ****½
Mark Mancina; add’l music, orchestrations & arrangements by Dave Metzger; conducted by Don Harper

“One of the reasons why I don’t do as many film scores is because themes seem to have gone away in a lot of areas. Part of being a composer is being able to write melodic material and knowing how to use it. Wallpaper just doesn’t intrigue me.”

Originally planned as a direct-to-DVD release, this spin-off of Pixar’s Cars franchise ended up being a solid earner at the summer box office despite rancid reviews. Its composer was originally Englishman James Seymour Brett, who’d had a variety of scoring roles over the year (many as part of Michael Kamen’s team) and whose most well-known lead credit at the time was probably the animated film Planet 51, but for whatever reason it didn’t work out and Mark Mancina got a call. “The head of Disney Music called and said ‘John Lasseter has a project he’s doing, he’s really unhappy with the music, his favorite song in The Lion King is He Lives In You.’” Mancina had been largely out of the limelight since the 2007 film August Rush, with his most prominent efforts being episodes of the CBS show Criminal Minds (a show he eventually quit due to its grisly subject matter) and the middling Sony game Sorcery, with side projects including trying to turn August Rush into a musical and recording classical guitar pieces.

“They said, ‘We need themes! We want people to hum the tune.’ The day of playing the theme for John, I passed out over stress and went to the hospital. John played it over and over again and said ‘it’s the best theme anyone’s ever written for me in any movie.’” Lasseter wasn’t kidding. Mancina had written a knockout theme drenched in Americana and sports movie feel that also gave nostalgic joy to the many fans who had loved when Mancina regularly delivered strong themes in the 90s and early aughts. Sure, the score had a solid bench of secondary themes, a number of standout sequences for countries featured in the film’s race (namely a gorgeous Indian interlude), and a delightful mix that balanced orchestra with retro rock. But it’s the main theme that really elevated the musical proceedings from standard adventure fare into something more special.

If you had ever wondered what would happen if Mancina’s Twister was turned into kiddie music, then this is the work for you.


African Safari (2013) - ***
Ramin Djawadi; add’l music & arrangements by Pierre Lebecque,
Brandon Campbell, Jean-Marc Lederman & Quentin Halloy

TBTF discovery #8. This 3D documentary was produced in part by Belgian studio nWave, which perhaps explains Ramin Djawadi’s appearance since he had already done several scores for them. He created a more energetic cousin of the understated music he created for Beat the Drum a decade earlier. It’s a short but sweet listen, one worth visiting at least once to understand the versatility the composer was demonstrating at this point in his career despite perhaps only being widely known at the time for Thrones (or perhaps to hear the embryonic beginnings of the style he would realize more fully in 2020’s Elephant).


Game of Thrones Season 3 (2013) - ***½
Ramin Djawadi; orchestrated by Stephen Coleman & Tony Blondal;
technical score advisors Brandon Campbell & William Marriott

“They shoot all the episodes ahead of time, then [in] post work on all the episodes at the same time, whereas on any other TV show that I’ve ever worked on they’re only a couple of episodes ahead of you, still shooting. On Person of Interest I just get a week to work on an episode. With Thrones, it’s been amazing to have a little bit more time.”

Djawadi would introduce a few new elements, including a brutal repeated figure for the Unsullied army and a lovely slow-moving idea for the budding relationship between Jon and Ygritte. But what will likely stick in most listeners’ minds from this season are the many variations on existing themes for Houses Stark, Lannister, and Greyjoy, Dany, Stannis, the White Walkers, and the Wall, as well as the main theme and its associated rhythm. Some moments still felt a bit too sampled, namely the cheap-sounding thriller tones for the all-time plot twist in the penultimate episode. Still, it was a reliable extension of the franchise’s musical style, and the climactic choral piece Mhysa was the best track from the series so far.


Pacific Rim (2013) - ****½
Ramin Djawadi; orchestrated by Stephen Coleman, Tony Blondal & Andrew Kinney; ambient music design
Mel Wesson; conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith & Jasper Randall; technical score advisor/coordinator
Brandon Campbell & William Marriott; guitars by Tom Morello, George Doering & Ramin Djawadi;
flutes by Pedro Eustache; ‘Drift’ by Djawadi, Blake Perlman & RZA; thank you to Hans Zimmer

“We wanted it orchestral. [Guillermo] wanted an adventure score. But because Guillermo said the rangers are not really military people, they’re more like cowboys, it’s [got] rock and roll. People realized, ‘this makes it cool’, but not too modern.”

“Giant effing robots fighting giant effing monsters” was how I described this Guillermo del Toro love letter to Japanese mecha and kaiju flicks when it came out (I may or may not have also used Pacific Rim Job as my team’s bar trivia team name that week, second in tastelessness only to the later-used Lick-Ass 2: The Jesse Jackson Jr. Jail Story). The film had its moments of silliness for sure, but also featured del Toro’s usual flair for creature design and dark visuals, resulting in solid reviews and decent worldwide box office. Djawadi was a surprise choice to do the film’s music, as del Toro had tended to use Marco Beltrami for his English-language features, but it would end up being an inspired choice. He expanded on the jagged rhythmic style of his Iron Man and Clash of Titans music to realize impressive orchestral volumes without trading off with the desired sense of coolness. A dense thematic bench, including an imposing anthem for the Russian robot crew and an alluring female vocal for the Mako character, helped the work overachieve, even in spite of the Inception foghorn showing up a few times.

”With [the monsters] we decided to go completely traditional, and pretty much like an homage to Godzilla monsters - big drums with trombones leading the thematic stuff. They needed to be [as] equally strong as the robots.”

Not making the original album: a song using Djawadi’s theme that featured the RZA and…actor Ron Perlman’s daughter???


Pain & Gain (2013) - **
Steve Jablonsky; ambient music design Clay Duncan; thank you to Bob Badami

TBTF discovery #9.

“Michael wanted to convey that Wahlberg’s character is in his own fantasy that [he] was never going to attain.”

An extra year between Transformers sequels meant Michael Bay finally got to make another movie about guys punching guys instead of robots punching robots. It also meant a return to the kind of music Bay tended to want from his movies before Transformers (The Island and Bad Boys II in particular) - cool-sounding, reliant on attitude more than melody, maintaining a general vibe for the scene without hitting particular sync points. Steve Jablonsky would claim Bay demanded “full electronic, no orchestra or anything,” leading to experiments with “weird noises” and resulting in a score wholly attuned to the world of its protagonists but an outright chore to enjoy on its lengthy album program.


Ender’s Game (2013) - **
Steve Jablonsky; add’l arrangements Jacob Shea; orchestrated by Penka Kouneva, Larry Rench,
Philip Klein & Alain Mayrand; conducted by Gavin Greenaway; technical score engineer Lori Castro

TBTF discovery #10.

“[At] first there was a U2 song. U2 is awesome, but there was no song anywhere and then all of a sudden ‘Beautiful Day’. It felt wrong. They said, ‘that needs to be huge, and this is the only thing that works.’ So I said, ‘alright, let me try something.’”

The long-gestating adaptation of homophobic author Orson Scott Card’s classic sci fi novel finally started filming in 2012. Respected composer James Horner was aligned to it in early 2013, but after some reshuffling of the post-production team that summer he was out and Steve Jablonsky was in. The filmmakers weren’t looking for music that was “flowery or complicated,” so what he ended up having to write was a sufficient extension of a somewhat stale style. Sure, he put a good amount of thought into his sonic landscape, even recording new drum sounds so that he didn’t feel he was duplicating his Transformers vibe, but for many listeners the epic chord shifts and walls of sound amidst relentlessly chugging strings will still feel akin to that brand. A violin solo in The Battle Room was a nice touch but also evocative of the Game of Thrones title theme. Much of the long album blurred the line between sound design and music, though thankfully no MRI machines were featured this time.


300: Rise of an Empire (2014) - *½
Tom Holkenborg; add’l programming Christian Vorländer, Stephen Perone & Emad Borjian;
orchestrated by B&W Fowler/Moriarty, Kevin Kaska & Carl Rydlund; woodwinds Pedro Eustache;
conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith; thank you to Hans Zimmer & Bob Badami

TBTF discovery #11.

“There was a lot of hobbying. With Artemisia I wanted to play an instrument that had a sexy groove to it. I took the inside of a piano and built a whole closet with it. The only way to play it is with a riot protection helmet. The Greeks had a very interesting flute back in the day called the aulos that sounds like a thin bagpipe; Pedro made something like it in the studio out of straws.”

This prequel / sequel to the commercially successful adaptation by Zack Snyder of Frank Miller’s graphic novel about Spartan warriors ultimately came and went in early 2014 with little fanfare. Snyder was originally only involved as a producer, but rumors of some behind-the-scenes production shake-ups in 2013 were seemingly confirmed by the jettisoning of Spanish composer Federico Jusid in favor of Tom Holkenborg. Per Hans Zimmer, “Tom was noticed in a favorable light by Zack when we were working on Man of Steel. He asked Tom right after, ‘Can you go and quickly do 300: Rise of an Empire for me?’”

Holkenborg only had three weeks. You’d think bludgeoning Superman drums, standard MV/RC chord shifts, and seemingly every stereotypical post-Gladiator Middle Eastern film scoring trope would be all he needed to pull it off in such a short time frame, but Holkenborg would also put his own stamp on the work with stretches of anachronistic guitar, electronica, and even dance music vibes (“this is not like your typical historical drama; the music needed to be modern and almost out of context”). It’s not like Holkenborg put no thought into his rush job; he took up the time to look up the two scales common in ancient Persia and tried to base his melodies and harmonies around those, among other things. But the resulting assault on the ears was bereft even of the guilty pleasures that Ramin Djawadi and team had provided in their last-minute replacement efforts for Clash of the TItans.


Divergent (2014) - **½
Tom Holkenborg; produced by Hans Zimmer; add’l music by Christian Vorländer &
Dave Fleming; conducted by Gavin Greenaway; percussion by Satnam Ramgotra

TBTF discovery #12.

“I hadn’t seen the movie. I had long talks with the producers and the director Neil Burger about what this movie was all about. Based on the script, I wrote 40 minutes of music just inside my head and I sent it out to them. ‘Does this work?’“

Holkernborg’s next effort, the score for this Hunger Games-adjacent book series adaptation, arrived via Zimmer, seemingly as one of his patented “I can’t fit it in my schedule, and may secretly not want to do it, but you should check out this guy” recommendations. Junkie’s drumming and atmospheres definitely dominated the long album runtime (nearly 90 minutes on the digital version), but he also dabbled in some soft rock tones (complete with the vocals of English pop singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding) and sorrowful orchestral laments which were an intriguing deviation from his output to date. The end result still averaged out to being about as derivative as Rise of an Empire, but in a less obnoxious fashion. Baby steps, I suppose.


The Equalizer (2014) - **½
Harry Gregson-Williams; programming by Hybrid, Justin Burnett & Philip Klein; orchestrated by Ladd McIntosh;
electric guitars George Doering & Peter DiStefano; electric cello Martin Tillman; electric violin Hugh Marsh

TBTF discovery #13.

“I stopped scoring for a year because I wanted to do something else I valued, which was teaching music. Unleash[ing] myself from my studio was a good way to recharge my batteries. The first film I [did] when I came back was The Equalizer.”

This reboot of the hit 1980s TV series about a retired intelligence agent overcame mixed reviews to perform decently at the box office (casting Denzel Washington helped). Director Antoine Fuqua had toggled through composers over the years but for this movie returned to the guy who scored his first feature film: Harry Gregson-Williams. The request seemed to be for Harry to provide something akin to the sonic universes of his scores for director Tony Scott and Ben Affleck - largely electronic, decidedly modern, edgy and occasionally aggressive, with a heavy prevalence of loops and thumps. “Antoine wanted sound effects to play a large part in the action – for the music to stand out on occasion, but not always.” One could be forgiven for thinking they’d heard this bag of tricks before, and the score falls somewhere between the caliber of The Town and The Taking of Pelham 123 - sufficient for the film but largely bland on album (largely because the final track had some gloriously badass moments).

During a promotional interview for this movie, Gregson-Wiliams mentioned he was already working on the score for Fuqua’s next movie Southpaw, though his music ended up being tossed in favor of surprisingly gritty material by James Horner. One gets the sense there were no hard feelings as Harry and the director still worked together a few more times.


Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014) - **½
Original music by Paul Dinletir and Kevin Rix; title theme and
add’l music by Harry Gregson-Williams, Justin Burnett & Philip Klein

TBTF discovery #14.

Harry would also return to games with this latest installment of Call of Duty, though apparently only on the condition that he didn’t have to provide music for any of the action (“I’m not a fan of shoot 'em up games”). The resulting 30+ minutes largely played like a less experimental extension of his Tony Scott scores, blended with throwbacks to the Media Ventures heyday and some noble orchestral tones that wouldn’t have been out of place in Prince of Persia. It was serviceable and occasionally quite fun, but not terribly distinctive. It would take until the following year for Harry’s sabbatical to start paying greater creative dividends.

The music production duo Audiomachine created a separate slate of tracks independent of Gregson-Williams’ efforts that I elected not to cover. But going off of James Southall’s review it seems I didn’t miss that much.

-----------------------

Next time: “I used to be hip, and now I’m this old fart that does only orchestral music and tunes.”

> Planes (2013) - ****½
Watched this in theaters when I was 6. Even then, I loved that main theme. Still do, and the rest of the score's great fun too. Probably Mancina's best IMO.

> Pacific Rim (2013) - ****½
This score epitomizes the word "cool." It's not hilariously derivative like Clash of the Titans or obnoxious like Iron Man, but it still fits in the uber-awesome wheelhouse of the Zimmer clan. Djawadi fookin' nailed this assignment.

> Baby steps, I suppose.
Can't wait until you cover Mortal Engines. Here's hoping it blows you out of the water like it did me.

> Next time: “I used to be hip, and now I’m this old fart that does only
> orchestral music and tunes.”
This quote REEKS of Powell. HTTYD 2 time baby let's GO

> Can't wait until you cover Mortal Engines. Here's hoping it blows you out of the water like it did me.

Six scores of his heard so far. Everything going forward will be a 'discovery' on my part.

Average rating 2.17. It can only go up, right?

> This is part of a series (a long-running series at this point).
> - The “whole Man of Steel business” is here -
> https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=116951
> - If you want the full set of links, click on my profile.

> -----------------------

> Skylanders: SWAP Force (2013) - ***
> Lorne Balfe; add’l music by Max Aruj, Andrew Christie & Gary
> Dworetsky; digital instrument design Mark Wherry;
> electronic programmer Stephen Hilton; technical assistants Joe Cho &
> Nathan Stornetta

> TBTF discovery #6. At 45 minutes, this was the longest Skylanders
> album to date. Thankfully, it had the most satisfying sonic palette of the
> series, with a lot of fun new elements - atmospheric vocals, bubbly
> electronics, Eastern instruments, harmonica and whips for a Western
> passage, and so on. Even the fat synths made for a nice dose of style.
> Best Skylanders yet.
>
>
> Beyond: Two Souls (2013) - ***½
> Lorne Balfe; produced by Hans Zimmer; add’l music by Max Aruj, Andrew
> Christie, Gary Dworetsky & Dieter Hartmann;
> orchestrated & conducted by Matt Dunkley; add’l orchestration by Tony
> Blondal, Dave Foster & Jake Parker;
> digital instrument Design Mark Wherry; score coordinator Kelly Johnson;
> technical assistant Joe Cho

> TBTF discovery #7.

> Zimmer: “This was more interesting than other [games] we had done. We
> are always looking for that next immersive thing.”

> This interactive game about a girl’s psychic link won attention for its
> cast (Elliot Page and Willem Dafoe!) and praise for its graphics but got
> more of a mixed reception for its gameplay and storyline. Director David
> Cage reached out to Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe in early 2012 about doing
> the game music, though per Balfe “the last thing he wanted was ‘game
> music!’ Getting a theme for Jodie was hard.” Balfe would in some ways
> deliver a typical work for the brand, with plenty of churning low strings
> and several progressions prompting memories of earlier Media Ventures
> moments of tortured drama (though, with Remote Contorl’s history of strip
> mining its action music legacy for video game purposes, perhaps it was
> nice to have one of their game scores be slightly derivative of something
> else for a change). But, as he had demonstrated in recent scores like
> Ironclad and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Balfe could add
> some intriguing wrinkles to somewhat transcend that familiarity: haunting
> solo vocals, a lullaby, and a stylish sense of aching mystery that
> arguably drifts into Craig Amstrong territory at times.
>
>
> Planes (2013) - ****½
> Mark Mancina; add’l music, orchestrations & arrangements by Dave
> Metzger; conducted by Don Harper

> “One of the reasons why I don’t do as many film scores is because
> themes seem to have gone away in a lot of areas. Part of being a composer
> is being able to write melodic material and knowing how to use it.
> Wallpaper just doesn’t intrigue me.”

> Originally planned as a direct-to-DVD release, this spin-off of Pixar’s
> Cars franchise ended up being a solid earner at the summer box
> office despite rancid reviews. Its composer was originally Englishman
> James Seymour Brett, who’d had a variety of scoring roles over the year
> (many as part of Michael Kamen’s team) and whose most well-known lead
> credit at the time was probably the animated film Planet 51, but
> for whatever reason it didn’t work out and Mark Mancina got a call.
> “The head of Disney Music called and said ‘John Lasseter has a project
> he’s doing, he’s really unhappy with the music, his favorite song in
> The Lion King is He Lives In You.’” Mancina had been largely
> out of the limelight since the 2007 film August Rush, with his most
> prominent efforts being episodes of the CBS show Criminal Minds (a
> show he eventually quit due to its grisly subject matter) and the middling
> Sony game Sorcery, with side projects including trying to turn
> August Rush into a musical and recording classical guitar pieces.

> “They said, ‘We need themes! We want people to hum the tune.’ The day
> of playing the theme for John, I passed out over stress and went to the
> hospital. John played it over and over again and said ‘it’s the best theme
> anyone’s ever written for me in any movie.’” Lasseter wasn’t kidding.
> Mancina had written a knockout theme drenched in Americana and sports
> movie feel that also gave nostalgic joy to the many fans who had loved
> when Mancina regularly delivered strong themes in the 90s and early
> aughts. Sure, the score had a solid bench of secondary themes, a number of
> standout sequences for countries featured in the film’s race (namely a
> gorgeous Indian interlude), and a delightful mix that balanced orchestra
> with retro rock. But it’s the main theme that really elevated the musical
> proceedings from standard adventure fare into something more special.

> If you had ever wondered what would happen if Mancina’s Twister was
> turned into kiddie music, then this is the work for you.

THANK YOU. Ever since it first came out I wondered why it wasn't more well received for having such a wonderful, memorable main theme. Love that score (sequel is almost as good).

>
>
> African Safari (2013) - ***
> Ramin Djawadi; add’l music & arrangements by Pierre Lebecque,
> Brandon Campbell, Jean-Marc Lederman & Quentin Halloy

> TBTF discovery #8. This 3D documentary was produced in part by Belgian
> studio nWave, which perhaps explains Ramin Djawadi’s appearance since he
> had already done several scores for them. He created a more energetic
> cousin of the understated music he created for Beat the Drum a
> decade earlier. It’s a short but sweet listen, one worth visiting at least
> once to understand the versatility the composer was demonstrating at this
> point in his career despite perhaps only being widely known at the time
> for Thrones (or perhaps to hear the embryonic beginnings of the
> style he would realize more fully in 2020’s Elephant).
>
>
> Game of Thrones Season 3 (2013) - ***½
> Ramin Djawadi; orchestrated by Stephen Coleman & Tony Blondal;
> technical score advisors Brandon Campbell & William Marriott

> “They shoot all the episodes ahead of time, then [in] post work on all
> the episodes at the same time, whereas on any other TV show that I’ve ever
> worked on they’re only a couple of episodes ahead of you, still shooting.
> On Person of Interest I just get a week to work on an episode. With
> Thrones, it’s been amazing to have a little bit more time.”

> Djawadi would introduce a few new elements, including a brutal repeated
> figure for the Unsullied army and a lovely slow-moving idea for the
> budding relationship between Jon and Ygritte. But what will likely stick
> in most listeners’ minds from this season are the many variations on
> existing themes for Houses Stark, Lannister, and Greyjoy, Dany, Stannis,
> the White Walkers, and the Wall, as well as the main theme and its
> associated rhythm. Some moments still felt a bit too sampled, namely the
> cheap-sounding thriller tones for the all-time plot twist in the
> penultimate episode. Still, it was a reliable extension of the franchise’s
> musical style, and the climactic choral piece Mhysa was the best
> track from the series so far.
>
>
> Pacific Rim (2013) - ****½
> Ramin Djawadi; orchestrated by Stephen Coleman, Tony Blondal &
> Andrew Kinney; ambient music design
> Mel Wesson; conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith & Jasper Randall;
> technical score advisor/coordinator
> Brandon Campbell & William Marriott; guitars by Tom Morello, George
> Doering & Ramin Djawadi;
> flutes by Pedro Eustache; ‘Drift’ by Djawadi, Blake Perlman & RZA;
> thank you to Hans Zimmer

> “We wanted it orchestral. [Guillermo] wanted an adventure score. But
> because Guillermo said the rangers are not really military people, they’re
> more like cowboys, it’s [got] rock and roll. People realized, ‘this makes
> it cool’, but not too modern.”

> “Giant effing robots fighting giant effing monsters” was how I described
> this Guillermo del Toro love letter to Japanese mecha and kaiju flicks
> when it came out (I may or may not have also used Pacific Rim Job as my
> team’s bar trivia team name that week, second in tastelessness only to the
> later-used Lick-Ass 2: The Jesse Jackson Jr. Jail Story). The film had its
> moments of silliness for sure, but also featured del Toro’s usual flair
> for creature design and dark visuals, resulting in solid reviews and
> decent worldwide box office. Djawadi was a surprise choice to do the
> film’s music, as del Toro had tended to use Marco Beltrami for his
> English-language features, but it would end up being an inspired choice.
> He expanded on the jagged rhythmic style of his Iron Man and
> Clash of Titans music to realize impressive orchestral volumes
> without trading off with the desired sense of coolness. A dense thematic
> bench, including an imposing anthem for the Russian robot crew and an
> alluring female vocal for the Mako character, helped the work overachieve,
> even in spite of the Inception foghorn showing up a few times.

> ”With [the monsters] we decided to go completely traditional, and
> pretty much like an homage to Godzilla monsters - big drums with trombones
> leading the thematic stuff. They needed to be [as] equally strong as the
> robots.”

> Not making the original album: a song using Djawadi’s theme that featured
> the RZA and…actor Ron Perlman’s daughter???

Ironically, considering its about as close to Trevor Rabin as we can get without the dude himself returning, I didn't love this one as much as everyone else. Solid 3.5/5 for me but yeah....was lacking something, I dunno what.

>
>
> Pain & Gain (2013) - **
> Steve Jablonsky; ambient music design Clay Duncan; thank you to Bob
> Badami

> TBTF discovery #9.

> “Michael wanted to convey that Wahlberg’s character is in his own
> fantasy that [he] was never going to attain.”

> An extra year between Transformers sequels meant Michael Bay
> finally got to make another movie about guys punching guys instead of
> robots punching robots. It also meant a return to the kind of music Bay
> tended to want from his movies before Transformers (The
> Island and Bad Boys II in particular) - cool-sounding, reliant
> on attitude more than melody, maintaining a general vibe for the scene
> without hitting particular sync points. Steve Jablonsky would claim Bay
> demanded “full electronic, no orchestra or anything,” leading to
> experiments with “weird noises” and resulting in a score wholly
> attuned to the world of its protagonists but an outright chore to enjoy on
> its lengthy album program.

A couple cues are mainstays in some of my playlists. The rest is blegh.

>
>
> Ender’s Game (2013) - **
> Steve Jablonsky; add’l arrangements Jacob Shea; orchestrated by Penka
> Kouneva, Larry Rench,
> Philip Klein & Alain Mayrand; conducted by Gavin Greenaway; technical
> score engineer Lori Castro

> TBTF discovery #10.

> “[At] first there was a U2 song. U2 is awesome, but there was no song
> anywhere and then all of a sudden ‘Beautiful Day’. It felt wrong. They
> said, ‘that needs to be huge, and this is the only thing that works.’ So I
> said, ‘alright, let me try something.’”

> The long-gestating adaptation of homophobic author Orson Scott Card’s
> classic sci fi novel finally started filming in 2012. Respected composer
> James Horner was aligned to it in early 2013, but after some reshuffling
> of the post-production team that summer he was out and Steve Jablonsky was
> in. The filmmakers weren’t looking for music that was “flowery or
> complicated,” so what he ended up having to write was a sufficient
> extension of a somewhat stale style. Sure, he put a good amount of thought
> into his sonic landscape, even recording new drum sounds so that he didn’t
> feel he was duplicating his Transformers vibe, but for many
> listeners the epic chord shifts and walls of sound amidst relentlessly
> chugging strings will still feel akin to that brand. A violin solo in
> The Battle Room was a nice touch but also evocative of the Game
> of Thrones title theme. Much of the long album blurred the line
> between sound design and music, though thankfully no MRI machines were
> featured this time.

Yeah speaking of playlists, Battle Room is a great track, one of the better ones of that decade in my opinion. Can't remember a note about the rest of the score.

>
>
> 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) - *½
> Tom Holkenborg; add’l programming Christian Vorländer, Stephen Perone
> & Emad Borjian;
> orchestrated by B&W Fowler/Moriarty, Kevin Kaska & Carl Rydlund;
> woodwinds Pedro Eustache;
> conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith; thank you to Hans Zimmer & Bob
> Badami

> TBTF discovery #11.

> “There was a lot of hobbying. With Artemisia I wanted to play an
> instrument that had a sexy groove to it. I took the inside of a piano and
> built a whole closet with it. The only way to play it is with a riot
> protection helmet. The Greeks had a very interesting flute back in the day
> called the aulos that sounds like a thin bagpipe; Pedro made something
> like it in the studio out of straws.”

> This prequel / sequel to the commercially successful adaptation by Zack
> Snyder of Frank Miller’s graphic novel about Spartan warriors ultimately
> came and went in early 2014 with little fanfare. Snyder was originally
> only involved as a producer, but rumors of some behind-the-scenes
> production shake-ups in 2013 were seemingly confirmed by the jettisoning
> of Spanish composer Federico Jusid in favor of Tom Holkenborg. Per Hans
> Zimmer, “Tom was noticed in a favorable light by Zack when we were
> working on Man of Steel. He asked Tom right after, ‘Can you go and
> quickly do 300: Rise of an Empire for me?’”

> Holkenborg only had three weeks. You’d think bludgeoning Superman drums,
> standard MV/RC chord shifts, and seemingly every stereotypical
> post-Gladiator Middle Eastern film scoring trope would be all he
> needed to pull it off in such a short time frame, but Holkenborg would
> also put his own stamp on the work with stretches of anachronistic guitar,
> electronica, and even dance music vibes (“this is not like your typical
> historical drama; the music needed to be modern and almost out of
> context”). It’s not like Holkenborg put no thought into his rush job;
> he took up the time to look up the two scales common in ancient Persia and
> tried to base his melodies and harmonies around those, among other things.
> But the resulting assault on the ears was bereft even of the guilty
> pleasures that Ramin Djawadi and team had provided in their last-minute
> replacement efforts for Clash of the TItans.

Yeeeeeeeah it's not good. Movie sucked too. All I remember is boobies. Angry boobies.

>
>
> Divergent (2014) - **½
> Tom Holkenborg; produced by Hans Zimmer; add’l music by Christian
> Vorländer &
> Dave Fleming; conducted by Gavin Greenaway; percussion by Satnam
> Ramgotra

> TBTF discovery #12.

> “I hadn’t seen the movie. I had long talks with the producers and the
> director Neil Burger about what this movie was all about. Based on the
> script, I wrote 40 minutes of music just inside my head and I sent it out
> to them. ‘Does this work?’“

> Holkernborg’s next effort, the score for this Hunger Games-adjacent
> book series adaptation, arrived via Zimmer, seemingly as one of his
> patented “I can’t fit it in my schedule, and may secretly not want to do
> it, but you should check out this guy” recommendations. Junkie’s drumming
> and atmospheres definitely dominated the long album runtime (nearly 90
> minutes on the digital version), but he also dabbled in some soft rock
> tones (complete with the vocals of English pop singer-songwriter Ellie
> Goulding) and sorrowful orchestral laments which were an intriguing
> deviation from his output to date. The end result still averaged out to
> being about as derivative as Rise of an Empire, but in a less
> obnoxious fashion. Baby steps, I suppose.

Ok this one...this one I just plain really, really like. Capturing the Flag and Tris are also two of my favourite cues from that decade. Some of the score is too much of the Man of Steel drum pounding, but overall I still think it's one of his very best.

>
>
> The Equalizer (2014) - **½
> Harry Gregson-Williams; programming by Hybrid, Justin Burnett &
> Philip Klein; orchestrated by Ladd McIntosh;
> electric guitars George Doering & Peter DiStefano; electric cello
> Martin Tillman; electric violin Hugh Marsh

> TBTF discovery #13.

> “I stopped scoring for a year because I wanted to do something else I
> valued, which was teaching music. Unleash[ing] myself from my studio was a
> good way to recharge my batteries. The first film I [did] when I came back
> was The Equalizer.”

> This reboot of the hit 1980s TV series about a retired intelligence agent
> overcame mixed reviews to perform decently at the box office (casting
> Denzel Washington helped). Director Antoine Fuqua had toggled through
> composers over the years but for this movie returned to the guy who scored
> his first feature film: Harry Gregson-Williams. The request seemed to be
> for Harry to provide something akin to the sonic universes of his scores
> for director Tony Scott and Ben Affleck - largely electronic, decidedly
> modern, edgy and occasionally aggressive, with a heavy prevalence of loops
> and thumps. “Antoine wanted sound effects to play a large part in the
> action – for the music to stand out on occasion, but not always.” One
> could be forgiven for thinking they’d heard this bag of tricks before, and
> the score falls somewhere between the caliber of The Town and
> The Taking of Pelham 123 - sufficient for the film but largely
> bland on album (largely because the final track had some gloriously badass
> moments).

> During a promotional interview for this movie, Gregson-Wiliams mentioned
> he was already working on the score for Fuqua’s next movie
> Southpaw, though his music ended up being tossed in favor of
> surprisingly gritty material by James Horner. One gets the sense there
> were no hard feelings as Harry and the director still worked together a
> few more times.
>
>
> Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014) - **½
> Original music by Paul Dinletir and Kevin Rix; title theme and
> add’l music by Harry Gregson-Williams, Justin Burnett & Philip
> Klein

> TBTF discovery #14.

> Harry would also return to games with this latest installment of Call
> of Duty, though apparently only on the condition that he didn’t have
> to provide music for any of the action (“I’m not a fan of shoot 'em up
> games”). The resulting 30+ minutes largely played like a less
> experimental extension of his Tony Scott scores, blended with throwbacks
> to the Media Ventures heyday and some noble orchestral tones that wouldn’t
> have been out of place in Prince of Persia. It was serviceable and
> occasionally quite fun, but not terribly distinctive. It would take until
> the following year for Harry’s sabbatical to start paying greater creative
> dividends.

> The music production duo Audiomachine created a separate slate of tracks
> independent of Gregson-Williams’ efforts that I elected not to cover. But
> going off of James Southall’s review it seems I didn’t miss that much.

Can't really argue with your ratings for any of the other ones haha.

> -----------------------

> Next time: “I used to be hip, and now I’m this old fart that does only
> orchestral music and tunes.”

> Yeah speaking of playlists, Battle Room is a great track, one of the
> better ones of that decade in my opinion. Can't remember a note about the
> rest of the score.

That's about what I recall too. Couple of solid highlights, but a full CD's worth of music from this is madness.

> Ironically, considering its about as close to Trevor Rabin as we can get
> without the dude himself returning, I didn't love this one as much as
> everyone else. Solid 3.5/5 for me but yeah....was lacking something, I
> dunno what.

I can't say I thought of Rabin for this one - though I wasn't familiar with him when I first heard this. Is it Armageddon you'd compare it with?

> Ok this one...this one I just plain really, really like. Capturing the
> Flag and Tris are also two of my favourite cues from that decade. Some of
> the score is too much of the Man of Steel drum pounding, but overall I
> still think it's one of his very best.

Those cues always blow me away! Personally, I'd name Mad Max Fury Road as his best overall, but those cues are among his best for any score.

(Message edited on Monday, December 12, 2022, at 12:18 p.m.)

Well written, as always! Hearing Mancina's quote on Planes was pretty intriguing. Looking forward to your future posts!

> Well written, as always! Hearing Mancina's quote on Planes was pretty intriguing. Looking forward to your future posts!

The whole interview I sourced that from is quite revealing about this and Mancina's other Disney works - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pK-_xjCBBQ (start at 22:50)

I think my impression is that you're getting a strong "been there, done that" vibe from these, which is funny, given that this is about when I entered the score-listening game! Many of these I would increase by a star, but then again, I'm not bingeing this sound!

> -----------------------

> Skylanders: SWAP Force (2013) - ***

And of course the first is one I haven't heard! I need to listen to some scores from this franchise.

> Beyond: Two Souls (2013) - ***½

Man, what a creepy aspect to this game (Elliot Page's full-body nude thing). David Cage is a major creep, who would have guessed. In any case, on a good day I'd have this at ****, but it's objectively pretty derivative. A fun cloudy-day listen!

> Planes (2013) - ****½

Full ***** from me, and not just nostalgia talking (though this was one of my earliest score purchases). For me, it's soaring, thrilling, uplifting and wow, that theme. I was enamored from the first teaser using it (and was disappointed when the film failed to live up to the stunning music). A modern classic, in my opinion.

> African Safari (2013) - ***

Not heard any of his documentary scores, need to fix that.

> Game of Thrones Season 3 (2013) - ***½

Sounds about right. Depending on my mood I may knock this down to ***, never been enamored with his GoT scores as a whole, though they have some excellent highlights.

> Pacific Rim (2013) - ****½

Another I'd knock up to full marks. Absolutely stunning use of the RC voice at the time to craft something gritty and full of memorable, catchy personality. Even the foghorn of doom sounds metallic and fitting. It's Djawadi's best by a lightyear, and one of my top favorites.
(Okay, heavily nostalgic here, and sure there's some passages that aren't five-star, but hey!) I need to rewatch this now that I've seen Neon Genesis Evangelion (twice! Ah, pandemic) and see the influences.

> Pain & Gain (2013) - **

I may actually say this needs to be *, in that it's all 'tude and no personality. ** is probably about right, given that it's just boring and not offensive. But c'mon Steve, an hour of this? A 35-minute album would do this one a favor.

> Ender’s Game (2013) - **

Might say kick this up to ***, but it's more boring than I remember (this one needed a 40-minute highlights album badly), AND they rejected Horner for this.

> 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) - *½

I remember this being one of the first new reviews from Clemmensen I saw that he used RC-music-as-steroids as a swipe. I'd probably shift this to *** if I'm in a good mood (guilty pleasure action music, albeit overlong album), but again, they rejected a much better score for warmed-over RC tones. Holk would have a far better showing on Mad Max: Fury Road.

> Divergent (2014) - **½

Solid *** from me. Again, overlong album, but the **** highlights are quite fun and pretty, but there's a lot of ** filler. The Elle Goulding material easily constitutes the best music from this one.

> The Equalizer (2014) - **½

*** from me, but only because I have an irrational soft spot for HGW's specific thriller flavor. I have absolutely no justification for why, given that I disagree with nothing you say!

> Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014) - **½

Heh, I thought the star score on this one was balancing the HGW material with Audiomachine's! Yeah, you're missing nothing. Their material was one of the biggest wastes of the decade. Hire the people known for nothing but power anthem-esque Epic Score music, and have them deliver the most over-processed abrasive action muck I could imagine for a CoD game? Madness. I'd bump HGW's material up by a star, but maybe it just compares favorably to the headache cushioning it.

> -----------------------

> Next time: “I used to be hip, and now I’m this old fart that does only
> orchestral music and tunes.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DlTexEXxLQ

I love this series, and it makes my day every time I see a new entry!

> I think my impression is that you're getting a strong 'been there, done that' vibe from these, which is funny, given that this is about when I entered the score-listening game! Many of these I would increase by a star, but then again, I'm not bingeing this sound!

Perhaps not helping matters is that the 'good stuff' tends to be what I've already heard. The Media Ventures era brought some nice surprises. Remote Control a little more sparse. This...well, it's still ongoing, so I suppose it's hard to say a summary point yet.

But then trree works from 2014-15 I'd already heard I ended up giving better ratings to this go-round (haven't posted about any of those yet). So hearing some stuff in a fresh light still adds value.

Still, if you think I'm a bit of a curmudgeon now, just wait till we get to part 8g!

> *** from me, but only because I have an irrational soft spot for HGW's specific thriller flavor. I have absolutely no justification for why, given that I disagree with nothing you say!

You bring up an interesting point. With the exception of Spy Game, I hadn't bothered to hear the rest of Harry's thriller stuff before I started this project. I'm only viewing these through an academic lens, in a sense - or, to quote The Wire, ain't no nostalgia to this shit here. I can absolutely imagine someone with more familiarity with these scores might have more affection for them, at least if they were more 'for you' the first go-round.

> Still, if you think I'm a bit of a curmudgeon now, just wait till we get
> to part 8g!

I can't wait to see what gets truly thrashed!

> You bring up an interesting point. With the exception of Spy Game,
> I hadn't bothered to hear the rest of Harry's thriller stuff before I
> started this project. I'm only viewing these through an academic lens, in
> a sense - or, to quote The Wire, ain't no nostalgia to this shit
> here. I can absolutely imagine someone with more familiarity with these
> scores might have more affection for them, at least if they were more 'for
> you' the first go-round.

Yeah, I find myself really liking them without a good reason for it, or rather it's not that I disagree with what you (or Clemmensen) say and dislike about them! At least part of it is that while they are atmospheric, they avoid the "don't get in the way" sonic wallpaper approach for the most part (or at least those passages don't make the album, HGW isn't afraid of releasing a solid 45-minute album). Even when I disagree, I love reading your thoughts!